Labor’s media plan doomed

It’s felt that Prime MInister Julia Gillard’s grasp on the job has been further weakened by the handling of its proposed media rule changes but it’s still expected that there is little chance of a leadership move at Tuesday’s caucus meeting.
Photo: Andrew Meares

by
Phillip Coorey | Gemma Daley

Julia Gillard
’s leadership is under pressure and her media changes in danger of collapsing after independent MP
Rob Oakeshott
joined
Craig Thomson
in opposing the entire package and
Bob Katter
stated he would not support key elements, including a government-appointed regulator.

With the government facing the prospect of having to dump most, if not all, of the package because it lacks the support to pass the legislation unamended through the lower house by its own deadline of Tuesday, caucus members, including Ms Gillard’s own supporters, were openly despairing.

While there was general support in the caucus for the changes, there was widespread anger at what MPs regarded as the bungled tactics of announcing the plan, giving Parliament just a week to pass them, and, in the process, sparking a war with the media industry just six months from the election.

Labor MPs restive

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott refused a last-minute concession from Ms Gillard as the government tried to stitch up support for the media package, which would introduce a public interest test on media ownership.
Photo: Peter Gleeson

“Our brilliant strategy to distract people from the good news about jobs is working a treat,’’ said one jaded MP who voted for Ms Gillard when
Kevin Rudd
challenged a year ago, but has switched.

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The negotiations with the independents foundered on Monday while, at the same time, media executives heaped criticism on the government during two parallel parliamentary inquiries.

On Monday night, however, the Australian Greens offered to support the reforms if the government agreed to amendments that limit the number of press councils and tighten the public interest test for media mergers.

They want the other crossbenchers in the lower house to recognise this could be the last chance in a long time to make any changes to media laws and “not throw the baby out with the bathwater".

Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said it was still possible for the legislative package to pass with the two simple changes.

Bob Katter says he finds it “extremely difficult to come to a point where the government at its discretion appoints the regulator”.
Photo: Penny Bradfield

Ms Gillard will face a restive caucus on Tuesday morning but multiple sources said there was little likelihood of a move on the leadership at the meeting. The Rudd camp remains divided about what to do and when.

But it was felt that Ms Gillard’s grasp on the job had been further weakened by the affair, especially as one of her key supporters, Communications Minister
Stephen Conroy
, had presided over the disaster.

Five of seven crossbenchers needed to pass bill

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says the government has failed to establish the case for the proposed media laws.
Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

The government needed five of the seven crossbenchers to pass the media bills through the House of Representatives by Tuesday. It wanted them through the Senate by Thursday. Senior sources said on Monday night the policy was dead, although the Greens were busy trying to negotiate a compromise to salvage the deal last night.

After Mr Thomson announced last week that he would oppose the changes, Mr Oakeshott joined him on Monday, describing the whole process as a “schemozzle" and he predicted the entire package would be dumped.

Mr Oakeshott refused a last-minute concession from Ms Gillard as the government tried to stitch up support for the package, which would introduce a public interest test on media ownership, establish a public interest media advocate (PIMA) to look at planned mergers, and audit journalists’ standards.

The package would also halve television licence fees to 4.5 per cent and abolish the rule that limits a network’s reach to 75 per cent of the total Australian market.

The government’s leader in the House, Anthony Albanese, says the government won’t be lectured by Mr Turnbull over the media.
Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Oakeshott told Ms Gillard he could not vote for the package.

“I just could not bring myself to support it," he told The Australian Financial Review.

Mr Katter told the Financial Review he opposed the government-appointed PIMA and abolishing the changes to the so-called reach rules.

“I find it extremely difficult to come to a point where the government at its discretion appoints the regulator,’’ he said. “That would seem to me the ­opposite of free speech.’’ Mr Katter said he would consider a regulator appointed by a panel of respected journalists and academics, but not the ­government.

Calls to act and save leadership

He said he would “oppose tenaciously any reduction in the reach rule’’, saying it would lead to greater media concentration.

Independent Tony Windsor on Monday night said Senator Conroy’s “take it or leave it" demand meant some crossbenchers would prefer to leave it at this stage.

“I would leave it; I think it would be dead," he said, adding it might have been different if there had been an extra week to study the changes.

Of the other cross benchers,
Andrew Wilkie
and Greens MP
Adam Bandt
have serious mis­givings about the proposed legislation, while
Peter Slipper
has refused to ­comment.

The imbroglio worsened as MPs returned to Canberra to find the latest Nielsen poll showing the government had failed to emerge from its post-Christmas slump and continued to trail the Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis by 56 per cent to 44 per cent.

One MP said Ms Gillard should denounce the package if she wants to save her leadership.

One minister who staunchly ­supports Ms Gillard expressed fears that a move on the leadership was becoming inevitable. “I can’t see it not happening,’’ she said.

Ms Gillard remained defiant, telling Fairfax Media on Sunday she had no intention of stepping down or being tapped on the shoulder.

Gillard said open to sensible suggestions

In Parliament, Ms Gillard defended the media plan, saying claims by the opposition and sections of the media were “absurdly false’’.

She said they would not impinge on press freedom, would guarantee diversity of views in one of the world’s most concentrated media markets, bolster self-regulation and give aggrieved members of the public a better right of reply.

Before negotiations with Mr Oakeshott collapsed, she told journalists her government was open to “sensible ­suggestions’’ on its controversial media laws but was not prepared to change the intent of the legislation.

“What we’ve said is we don’t want the intent of our reforms to be distorted in any way," she said.

“But we are not in the business of cross-trading or horse-trading on these bills."

Ms Gillard declined twice on Tuesday to commit to taking the reforms to the election as policy should they founder this week.

In Parliament, Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott
moved to suspend Question Time to condemn Ms Gillard over the proposed laws, saying the government could not abide criticism. “When it’s criticised, it reveals its authoritarian streak,’’ he said.

Albanese hits out at turnbull

The Opposition communications spokesman,
Malcolm Turnbull
, said the government had failed to establish the case for the laws.

“The complaint from the Labor Party that we’ve got a problem with diversity and over-concentration is seen for what it is – we’ve got more diversity now and less concentration than we’ve had for many years," Mr Turnbull said.

“Their concern is not about diversity, it’s about opinion – they don’t like ­getting a shellacking in the press but they get it on air, they get it in the pubs, they get it in the clubs, they get it in the streets, they get it all around the country and they get it because they so richly deserve it."

The leader of the government in the House,
Anthony Albanese
, said the government would not be lectured by Mr Turnbull on such matters.

“He sued The Sydney Morning Herald over a piece involving allegations about an ex-girlfriend’s cat, the same person who settled with The Australian Financial Review in court because of an article calling him part polymath and part sociopath, and he even tried to sue to stop his political opponents questioning whether he was fit for public office,’’ he said.